'Tis the season 2023

John + Colin maintained the status quo in 2023: happy hour on Fridays, band practice on Saturdays, book clubs on Sundays, and work the rest of the week.

Colin continues to enjoy working at Okta. His team has grown three times as big in the six years he’s been there. So, it’s nice to work with new colleagues. Shame about the security breach, though. Ah well. John found a contract position with a startup in April.

John has his coffee klatch most weekends with the boys. He watches atrocious movies with the “Bad Movie Club” gang on Sunday nights after book clubs. And when time permits he visits Santa Cruz, Pacifica, the East Bay, and anywhere else public transportation easily takes him. 

Colin visited his Dad and Jan in Portland over Memorial Day weekend. They have just recently moved into a cool bungalow at St. Mary’s Wood in the Lake Oswego neighborhood, having sold their behemoth of a place in Beavercreek. Many memories were made in Beavercreek, but new ones will be made in Lake Oswego. Colin also managed to visit with high school friends and reunite with a bunch of SF ex-pats while in Portland.

John’s non-Bay Area travels revolved around Ogden, UT this year (via Amtrak from SF no less). He met his usual travel partner in crime, Rachael there in April to celebrate Susan’s birthday. In July, John and Susan had a two-week road trip around Utah and Colorado seeing national parks, dinosaurs, and thrift stores of course (and managed to see Rachael again). 

In September, Colin took a globe-trotting two week vacation. First stop, Berlin for a week, with Currywurst, sightseeing, and vibrant nightlife. Second stop, Chicago for a week to visit his twin brother’s fam. Chicago serendipitously overlapped with his older brother’s sojourn to the States from Barcelona. They had a couple of raucous, acoustic guitar-playing nights. The stay was capped off with a visit from Uncle Andy and Donna, during which they drunkenly architected stairs for Chris’ garage. (Fun fact: the dimensions they labored over for what seemed like eternity actually worked!)

And finally in November, Colin + John (plus 20+ good friends) converged upon the Sunset Marquis in Los Angeles to celebrate Colin’s Big 5-0. It was great to catch up with friends they weren’t able to see since the pandemic. The hotel itself has a storied history of rock stars staying, living, and partying there in the 70’s and 80’s so we took a cue from that.

Rounding our the year will be the annual house Xmas party in the beginning of December and then spending Christmas proper back up in Portland.

Wonder and delight!

xoxox,
John + Colin